Wow

Jay came home last friday from the first Power Generation Canda Day outreach practice and said that there is a new drama being done to this song "A Note To God" by Charice. So he uploaded the video on youtube and all I have to say is wow. The song is amazing and her voice is powerful. I am so excited to see everything that this new drama entails. Last years new addition "Color Theft" by Oh, Sleeper was my favorite; but I have a feeling that it will be replaced this year.
Check out the video of the song from Oprah below:

Beautiful Song

About a month ago I finally got around to getting the Steven Curtis Chapman CD that I had wanted for quite some time. Whenever I get a new CD, I'm the type of person who pulls out the liner notes and reads ever word written, from the lyrics to the thank yous. (I know I'm weird!) Well, I get to this one song called "One little heartbeat at a time" and I find myself bawling my eyes out before I've even reached the words of the chorus. The song is about being a mother and how all the things that we do as mom's seem to be unnoticed and rushed, but that everything we do changes the world one little heartbeat at a time. I know being a mom of two boys, that sometimes I wonder if anything I do matters. It seems that my days are just filled with wiping noses, bums and tears. Changing diapers, refereeing fights, making food, picking up toys. Doing piles of dishes and laundry. Endless episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street & Handy Manny. Then there's the whining and the temper tantrums. (one which is going on right now as I type!) But then there are also some of the best parts... the hugs, the kisses, the cuddles, the "mommy I love you". I have always known I have wanted to be a mom. Looking back now, I know that I had no clue what it meant, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. And to my own mom... Thank you for all that you did for me. For all the little things and the big things. Happy Mother's Day!

"One Little Heartbeat At A Time"
You’re up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
and you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Well maybe you just don’t know
or maybe you’ve forgotten

That you, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh you, you may not see it now
but I believe that time will tell
how you, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time

With every, “I know you can do it”
and every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
they’re just like the drops of rain
over time, they become a river

And you, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh you, you may not see it now
but I believe that time will tell
how you, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time

You’re beautiful, so beautiful
how you’re changing the world, yeah you’re changing the world

You, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh you, you may not see it now
but I believe that time will tell
how you, you are changing the world
I believe that you, you are changing the world
one little heartbeat at a time

OC Transpo Strike

Well, it's day 28 in the OC Transpo strike here in Ottawa and I'm gonna put in my two cents. I am one of the lucky ones who don't really need OC Transpo. I don't have my drivers licences so it's more of a convenience than a necessity, but that being said I like it when it's around. That way if I want to go farther than South Keys I can. I can usually just wait until my husband gets home and then we take the car to where we need to go. Jason has managed to find a fellow co-worker who has a parking pass so he can get a lift in every day. The minor inconvenience is that he has had to stop working compressed and switch to her hours. Again all minor annoyances but livable. But there are others I know who rely on this service and have been greatly hampered by it's lose. For example, my youngest sister is a University of Ottawa student and the strike came during her exam time. For the first bit there was no shuttle in the west end so my mother who works was having to drive my sister during her lunch to school so she could go to her exams. Eventually the U of O added shuttle service to the west end, so my mom was driving her to the shuttle point and picking her up. I have just read on CFRA that U of O will be removing shuttle service after this Friday because it must respect the OC Transpo drivers. Frankly I find this idea stupid. I am sure that my sister is not the only one who has no other way to get to school except for this shuttle service. My sister and other students like her pay quite a bit of money to go to school and now have to figure out a way to get there. But does anyone really care about them? The university already has their money so why should they care? I blame U of O for making a very poor decision!

In my work experiences I have been a part of negotiating to bring a union in and also have been part of a union where our contract was up and people wanted to strike. (Not that it would have been able to do anything considering my union was only 63 people scattered between four buildings and we gave up the right to strike in the previous contract negotiations!) So I have seen both benefits and draw backs to the whole process. I have seen the good side where it was going to prevent management from abusing employees, but also the bad side where union was in my opinion way to powerful and pigheaded! I was part of the whole PSAC strike back a few years ago where my union was not striking but I was denied access to my work for hours on end because strikers were trying to get their point across to management. The mob mentality ruled significantly there. Grown adults calling people names, video taping people, threatening them, cat-calling one women who chose to cross because she was a single mother of three young children and it was strike and not put a roof over their heads and food in their bellies or cross and be ridiculed. I watched members grab a stroller of a woman who was returning from maternity leave but was not in uniform (I worked at DND) to prevent her from going in. Yes you read that right GRABBED THE STROLLER WITH THE BABY INSIDE!! Grown adults under mob mentality.

In my personal opinion I think that both sides should be sent to binding arbitration and the drivers & mechanics legislated back to work. I feel that this strike was called too fast. Where was the working to rule? The members gave the union a strike mandate, fine, that didn't mean that it had to be accelerated to a strike right away. There is avenues of working to rule. No OT and no uniforms. I think that this whole thing amounts to Amalgamated Transit Union President André Cornellier hate-on for Mayor Larry O'Brien. And it is the drivers and the public who are and will suffer for it. Mr. Cornellier has come off in the media as a smug, arrogant man with an extreme dislike for Larry O'Brien. If this vote on Thursday is no (which I think it will be, unfortunatley, because of what I believe to be a lack of thought when it comes to oneself and again mob mentality. Just watch the news clips people were saying no on the way in did they really give it a fair chance and listen or did they bring their preconceived notions in?) the city should just take all offers of the table and sit and wait. And the federal governement should step in and legislate them all back to work. I truly feel sorry for the bus drivers when they do go back to work because they will be the brunt of alot of anger and hostility. I expect that there may even be some physical violence towards them. That is wrong no matter how one feels. I know that there are two sides to every story so I can imagine that there are some things that management is wanting or doing that isn't right either. But the issue I have here is that again, Mr. Cornellier brought the members to this place of a strike without any other action first. And he will not receive the backlash that the bus drivers will. There is no winners in any of this, no matter what anyone thinks. The public will be angry, ridership will go down, members will be angry at others for not siding with them or speaking out. In the end I can only hope that calmer voices will prevail. This is the capital city of Canada and we all deserve better.

Merry Christmas!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's Sad

I have altered one of my previous posts and taken out a video due to some saddening news that has come out this past week. Michael Guglielmucci who wrote the song Healer and who in the video I have in a previous post, has come out stating that he was not suffering with a terminal illness and lied about it for two years. I was deeply saddened to hear this and I lift up in pray all those who have been affected by his poor decisions. There are some who are saying that we should no longer use the song Healer in any worship whatsoever. My opinion on that is this. Is there anything in the words of the song that are not biblical? Is not God our portion, our healer? I realize that this may cause people to stumble so caution must be used, but to say that the song was not from God I don't know. Who are we to know the mind of God? Also, it saddens me to read comments from people that are so hurtful and angry and negative. Some are even using this as a "See God doesn't exist. Look another Christian who fell." It saddens me that God is lumped in with people who make poor decisions. Let's remember, this is a man who yes deceived others but was also deceived himself. When we get our eyes off of God and onto ourselves the result is always trouble. Did he make a poor decision, YES. Was what he did wrong? Emphatically yes! But we must also remember we too make decisions every day that are against God and are just as wrong. Tell a lie here, take a pen from work that no one will miss. Just because they aren't as public as this doesn't make them any less offensive to God. This is why when you are in ministry you need to be constantly under covering, under authority. You need to be in constant prayer and self examination. Renewing your mind daily. Removing the "stinking thinking" as Pastor Syd always says. It is very dangerous ground that one stands one when we think that we got where we are because of our own doing. So I say all of that to say this. Keep your eyes focused on God. Pray continually. Pray for Michael Guglielmucci and his family. Pray for his healing spiritually and mentally. Pray for those who have been hurt by this. But don't let your view of God be changed due to what your eyes see. See who God truly is by reading His Word. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Life

It has been interesting to me to sit back and watch over the past little while how the appointment of Morgentaler to the Order of Canada has restarted a massive debate on the whole issue of abortion and the idea of whether a fetus is a life or not. One of the things that I have found profoundly disturbing throught the whole thing is how now there are people calling those who are Pro-Life Anti-Choice. So now the sides are divided up into Pro-Choice and Anti-Choice. That just sits so horribly to me. I am Pro-Life. I have always been Pro-Life. I believe that life starts at conception. I believe that abortion is wrong and (in my personal opinion) is murder. I live in one of the few countries in the entire world that has NO laws or legal restrictions on abortion. (about the only thing that I know of is that it is very hard to find a doctor who will do a third trimester abortion in Canada. Usually women are sent to the states for that) A 12 year old girl can have an abortion and also there is no need for parental consent either. (I was shocked when I read that!) According to wikipedia over Stats Canada stated that in 2003 over 110,000 abortions are preformed every year which equates to 30 abortions for every 100 live births! The majority of abortions are due to convenience and not rape or medical reasons. Now the big Pro-Choice argument is always my body my rights. But I ask this question. Does anyone ever think of the rights of that baby or of the father who helped to create it? Neither have a voice or a say. Having carried two babies myself there is no way that I could ever have an abortion even if I was raped or for medical reasons. (my life or the baby's) To know that there is something growing inside you, moving around, breathing, living is awesome. I think that as a country we need to put in some ground rules on the whole abortion front with the first being to not allow a 12 year old to have an abortion! We need to begin to be a voice for those who have none. Who are not an inconveniece because people show poor judgement. All life is sacred and should be treated as such.

This is an amazing video I saw on youtube:

Here is the live worship video of the song "Healer" mentioned in my previous post. Awe inspiring.

Hillsong Music

I love the music that comes out of Hillsong Church in Australia. The music from Hillsong and Hillsong United (the youth worship team) is my favorite worship music. We have sung the song "Healer" at our church and I love it!! (It is on the new Hillsong album out this Tuesday can't wait!!) The song gives me goose bumps!!! I cannot wait to buy this CD and the DVD as well. (I always end up buying both because I love to watch the live worship concert. Logan loves it too)
Here are the lyrics to this amazing song:

Healer - Mike Guglielmucci
You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease
I trust in You
I trust in You
Chorus
I believe You're my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You're my Portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus You're all I need
Bridge
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands